A powerful typhoon that has killed hundreds of people and wreaked devastation in the Philippines was set to smash into the country again today, forecasters warned.
Typhoon Bopha had looked to be heading away after destroying whole communities in the south, but the official weather agency said it had unexpectedly turned and would hit again in the early hours, this time in the north.
The agency urged people to prepare for fierce winds of up to 160 km/h and heavy rains when the storm slams into the northern tip of the main island of Luzon.
The surprise development piles more pressure on the country, which has called for international aid for the south, where floods and landslides sparked by Bopha have flattened whole villages and left tens of thousands of people homeless.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino declared a state of national calamity yesterday. A price freeze on basic commodities was put into effect, and local governments were authorised to utilise their calamity funds for search, relief and rescue operations.
A United Nations aid assessment team flew to the southern island of Mindanao, which bore the brunt of the destruction, yesterday and was met with "100 per cent destruction", said Imogen Wall, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.